Boulder council supports Civic Area plan

Building a performing arts center and a year-round market hall to complement an expanded farmers market in central Boulder found support from the City Council on Tuesday night.

In a meeting on the Civic Area Master Plan, the council gave its approval to the broad outlines of a staff proposal while expressing skepticism and concern about some of the details.

The Civic Area lies along Boulder Creek between Ninth and 17th streets and between Canyon Boulevard and Arapahoe Avenue, and city leaders have identified redeveloping that area as a top priority.

Civic Area project coordinators Sam Assefa and Lesli Ellis described a plan that maintains Boulder Creek as a natural corridor and creates a larger, more cohesive park at the core, with a combination of cultural, educational and municipal office space around the edges of the area.

They recommended removing the New Britain and Park Central city buildings on the northwest corner of Arapahoe and Broadway and the surface parking lot for the library due to their location in a high-hazard flood zone.

They would be replaced with new office space, most likely along 13th and 14th streets as part of a larger mixed-use development and an underground parking structure.

Much of the Civic Area plan focuses on redeveloping the area between 13th and 14th streets. The Dushanbe Teahouse and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art would remain as key community institutions. The rest of the block could house some combination of city and private office space, hotels, a community event center that could also host performances, or a performing arts center.

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Thirteenth and 14th streets might be closed to vehicles, with the exception of buses on 14th Street.

Another possible location for a performing arts center would be the north wing of the main Boulder Public Library, which already has a theater but could be redeveloped.

A group supporting the performing arts center is working on a feasibility study this summer.

Most City Council members supported the general outline, but George Karakehian and Ken Wilson said it seems like a waste of resources to tear down two city office buildings.

Councilman Macon Cowles said he worries the need for more city office space -- between 50,000 and 110,000 square feet, according to the city staff -- would end up distorting the plan.

"I can't think of anything less exciting than offices, so I don't want the movement of city buildings to become the tail that wags the dog," he said.

Council members were supportive of the idea of a market hall with agricultural and related products to complement the farmers market, though they urged the city staff to work closely with farmers.

Boulder County Farmers' Market Executive Director Shanan Olson said farmers want the market to remain true to community values.

With both the market hall and the performing arts center, some council members expressed concern that the buildings would not contribute to a vibrant city center that would be used throughout the day and the year.

Staff members suggested moving the historic bandshell at Canyon and Broadway into the interior of the park. That proposal divided the council.

Boulder Finance Director Bob Eichem said the city would need to consider a variety of financing mechanisms, including public-private partnerships and special districts, to make the Civic Area ideas into reality. Some of those mechanisms could be controversial, he said.

Eichem pointed to projects like Belmar in Lakewood, the Museum of Discovery in Fort Collins and Civic Center Park in Loveland, which used creative financing.

"These other projects have shown it can be done, and we believe it can done in Boulder," he said.

Boulder plans to hold another open house on the Civic Area Master Plan on July 11 and a City Council study session on July 30 before presenting a final plan in the fall.